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Ok, so let’s start by explaining what each one is:

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation, is all about optimising the pages of your website so they appear higher up in search results on search engines (below the adverts), for certain search terms and keywords.

Google Ads (PPC) – PPC stands for Pay Per Click, and are the ads at the top and bottom of search results in Google. You literally pay to  advertise here, each time a viewer clicks on them.

Both extremely powerful marketing tools, and choosing to use just one of them is not the way to go. How would you even compare, and choose, one of two available tools that each have distinct advantages? You just can’t.

PPC is instant; you have a lot of instant control over it, and you get a lot of data from it – but it costs you money every time someone clicks on your ad, so it’s really important that you optimise your ad so that only the right people are clicking, for the right search terms, which in turn means you’re getting a good return on your investment. This means managing your ads, preferably daily, and not just setting up an ad and leaving it run without any further thought. You’d just be burning money by doing that, basically.

SEO, on the other hand, doesn’t cost you a penny when somebody clicks on you in their search results on Google, but SEO takes time and skill, it is the longer game. You will either need to know how to do SEO or pay somebody to do it. Do not be tempted with link building companies as these can cause a lot of damage.

Why would you use PPC when SEO is free?

Not everyone clicks on the first results they see, and not everyone will click on an ad, purely because they can see it’s an ad – some people want to look at organic search results and scroll down the pages as they see these as having more value to them. This is where SEO comes in. Bear in mind, though, that the internet is a highly competitive market, and everyone wants to be at the top of page 1, so it can take time to get to the top pages using SEO and there’s a lot of skill involved in doing so, so using PPC whilst your work your magic on SEO will give you that instant page one presence.

On the flip side, believe it or not, some people don’t go past page 1, or even the first half of page 1, of their search results. They don’t want to scroll, they just want a quick solution, so PPC really works for these people as they’re right at the top of the search results.

So a mixture of SEO and PPC together is a sure fire way of making sure you’re seen by a wider audience, and a smart idea for your marketing.

It’s all about keywords

With SEO and PPC you are aiming to get your page or advert to the top of the search engines when someone types in a certain word or phrase, and this is where a lot of people fall into a trap of low performance and high costs, as they go for the most obvious keywords. These ‘obvious’ keywords are the ones most people choose for their SEO and PPC, so the competition is high and the cost inflated. So mix your SEO and PPC keywords up a bit, by all means go for a few obvious keywords or search terms, but also carry out some research to find the less competitive words and phrases that won’t cost so much on PPC, or take so long to get you to the top pages with SEO. You may also find some real  gems of keywords your competitors have missed!

Keyword tools and analysis

The way you find the right keywords is not to pluck them out of the air, there are several online tools to help you find keywords based on search results within Google itself. They tell you the estimated search volume and how competitive each of the keywords is.

Another good idea is to carry out competitor analysis on the market leaders in your sector, to see which keywords and phrases they go for. You don’t have to copy them necessarily, but it will give you an idea of where you stand against them.

Conclusion

The leading players in your industry will almost certainly of invested heavily in both PPC and SEO to get to where they are now. You can do the same thing, but neither SEO or PPC is a five-minute job, it takes time, skill and patience, so start now and harvest the results later. Don’t be tempted to play at either SEO or PPC, both can cost you dearly, but running PPC and SEO correctly can take your company to another level.

If you would like more advice then please get in touch and ask to speak with our SEO and PPC team, they will be happy to help you: 01455 561 561.

Let’s be honest, engineering marketing is a headache. The kind that doesn’t go away after you’ve taken pain killers. But, while challenging, it’s also necessary. Having previously worked on the front line as a Technical Sales Manager, and a Technical Marketing Manager too, I feel like I know a thing or two about this subject. Let’s dig into it:

Marketing for engineers is quite often at the bottom of the list in an Engineering Manager’s day, but nevertheless it needs to be done, so why not do it well and reap the rewards? I’ve worked for companies at both ends of the engineering marketing spectrum; one who invested heavily into their website and digital marketing for their sales team; another who simply gave their sales team samples and a catalogue, told them to hit the road and thought nothing more about it.

I can tell you with absolute confidence that, both then and now, the company that takes their engineering marketing seriously is the company that will come out on top every time.

Imagine sending your sales team out to warm leads, where most of the selling has already been done by your website and marketing material. Instead of turning up to a cold lead, they’ll basically be there to guide the buyer with the purchase – it’s really that powerful.

Marketing in the engineering sector isn’t like other sectors; it’s not like selling trendy clothing or tools to the DIY trade, where the end user knows what they’re looking for. Engineering is far less tangible than that, which can make the marketing hard. But, equally, the rewards are far higher than other industries, with much greater profit margins when you get it right.

Engineering, in general, has always had a strong word-of-mouth approach to selling, where your customers and/or suppliers refer you to one of their contacts. Back in the day, we all had our own specialism which made it easy for people to refer and recommend us. But, with modern versatile tooling it’s a lot easier nowadays to adapt your skills to another market and skill altogether, so you have far more competition than you ever dreamed possible in the past.

Basically, now more than ever we need to be promoting our own company and specialisms with engineering marketing, rather than hoping someone else will do it for us.

“But we’re engineers, we’re not into that new digital marketing technology, so why should we bother?”

I can hear it being said now from certain companies I know of!

There are lots of reasons to bother with marketing and, if for no other reason, your competitors are getting into it right now and getting ahead of you. And I’m not just talking about the competitors in the same town as you, I’m talking about competitors across the country, across Europe and across the world. Competitors you probably don’t even know of yet, but they are there and they are marketing into your sector and customers as we speak.

Let’s talk about trade exhibitions for a minute. A popular choice in the engineering industry, we often see engineering companies, tying up their marketing spend in one or two trade shows every year, which is not a good idea! What happens every other day of the year? If attending trade fairs is part of your complete marketing strategy then I applaud you, but if it is their only engineering marketing strategy then I fear for them.

Engineering companies are typically located on industrial estates, the doors are usually locked and there’s no way of looking through the windows. Even if there were windows, what passing traffic do we have to peer in through them? We, more than most other industries, need to create ourselves a virtual window – to show what goes on behind our closed doors and attract new customers in. But equally, we need to make sure our current customers are fully aware of what our capabilities are. How often do we hear that our favourite customer goes down the road for one of the services we too could be providing?

So, where do you start with engineering marketing?

I’m going to break this up into two posts – the first part where we’re gearing up for marketing is here, then the second part where we actually get on with the marketing will follow on. 

Step 1

The first place to start with engineering marketing is to understand what we are trying to achieve, and the advantages it may bring to us if we get it right. Because unless there’s a significant advantage to you, then why would you spend time and money doing it? Have a think about what you want to achieve from your marketing, here’s some inspiration:

Now, this list could go on forever, but make sure you know where your end target is and what it will bring to you and your company.

Step 2

Okay, so once you’ve identified what you want to achieve with your marketing, it’s time to move onto the next stage. Start identifying who you’re going to target with your adverts. There’s absolutely no point in marketing to everybody, as most people won’t have a need for what you produce, but you can start by asking yourself the following questions and building up a profile or avatar of the company, and person within the company, you want to market to:

Step 3

 By now, you’re nearly at the point where you can start building up a plan, or strategy, of how you’re going to target these people. But, you need to realise that any engineering marketing activity will almost always drive new visitors to your website, so how’s yours looking right now? What does it say about you as a company? If your answer to that is “It looks okay”, then you need to improve it until it looks great.

Your website will help form the first impression of you, it’s likely it’ll be the only impression in the viewers mind so it’s imperative that you get it right.

One way of tackling this, is to get an independent review of your website from three different marketing companies. Make it clear from the start that you want to pay for the review, and no matter what they say it will not result in them gaining work from you. This way you’ll get more of an honest review of your site, and everyone knows where they stand from the start.

Never ask colleagues, friends and/or family to do this for you, as they’ll just tell you what you want to hear, trust me.

If your website is clean, modern and truly reflects your company, then proceed to step 4. But don’t be tempted to go to step 4 without taking step 3 seriously, otherwise you’ll be back here in no time at all having wasted good money on pointless marketing.

Okay, so by now you know why you’re entering into engineering marketing, you know the type of customers you want to attract, and who within them would most likely be the person to place the first order with you. You’ve also had your website independently checked and you’ve carried out the recommendations suggested.

You’re good to go!

Step 4

 This step is to look at the marketing tools available to engineers and how to select the right ones for your company, as well as how to set them up and measure their performance.

I think this is a good place to stop for now, we’ll be covering all of the above and more in our next insight, so be sure to come back and take a look.

If you would like to ask any questions or need any help with engineering marketing then be sure to get in touch.

Believe it or not, there’s no simple answer to “what digital marketing tools are best for engineers” (sorry).

It’s impossible for me to tell you what you should be using for digital marketing for your business, because the amount of options and strategies that you have at your disposal are absolutely endless.

“So what’s the point of this blog post then, Richard?!”

I hear you say.

Well, I wanted to write this post to help you avoid a very common marketing mistake we see all too often, a practice that costs you money and delivers very little in return.

One of the biggest mistakes that engineers make with their digital marketing, is they look at what other people are doing and follow suit. They look at the tools that others are using, such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads etc and they think to themselves:

“I should use that too! It works for Joe Bloggs down the road, it should work for me too”.

And off they go and try the new marketing tool, without really thinking too much about it. We understand the attraction to this in saving time and money, but do you think Joe Bloggs carried out any research on this tool or strategy himself and whether it really was the best option for his business, let alone yours?

Don’t get me wrong, that strategy is better than nothing. It’s much better to market yourself that way than not at all, but a much better place to start is with a question that goes something like:

“What’s the best way to market to my target audience?”

Just because a certain tool or strategy may work for Joe Bloggs it does not necessarily mean it will work for you, even if you’re in the same industry.

Here is the way we would suggest you approach using new marketing tools.

Ask yourself “who am I trying to attract?”

Draw up an image of your ideal customer / avatar? (even give them a name if you want to!):

The more you can think about that person and the more you understand them, the better you’ll be with your marketing. Trust me it works!

Understanding what they do; the challenges and pressures they come up against on a daily basis; will give you a much better understanding of how to market to them, especially in the engineering sector.

Once you have this image of your ideal customer, and once you have an understanding of their issues and/or desires, you can work on the message that you want to get across to them.

You know your capabilities and services inside out, but you need to be able to showcase it in a way that will attract your ideal customer. You need to have quality copy and images on your website to portray the look and feel of a professional business. This is SO important!

Great copy and imagery sells!

Now, if you’ve managed to do this with advertising materials; you need to back it up with a great landing page for the product/service on your website. Because this is where your customer will most likely go next.

Let’s just rewind a little bit…

You’ve got that profile of your ideal customer.

You’ve crafted your marketing media.

Then, and only then, will you be able to choose which are the best marketing tools for your business.

For some businesses the answer could be SEO, some may need Google Ads, or Facebook marketing. I have a long list of digital marketing strategies that I could go through with you today – some are ideal for you and your business, but some aren’t as they’re not where your ideal customer is ‘hanging out’ online, so to speak.

But, once you understand your ideal customers, you should start to understand which marketing tools would suit them best as you will know where they go to learn and where they go to  communicate.

An important piece of advice that I feel I should add here, is not to limit yourself to one marketing tool.

Having said that, don’t use too many at once! Our recommendation is to use two or three at the same time, as you might become swamped and overwhelmed. Why do we say this? A vital part of your digital marketing is analysing and tracking your strategies to see what’s working, and what’s not. By doing this, you can alter your ad text, your audience, your targeting etc to suit the data you’re analysing, making your marketing more effective. By only using a few different tools, you can keep on top of this side of your marketing.

And there you have it; the first steps to successful digital marketing!

Don’t follow what the other engineering companies are doing for their marketing, look at your market place first, then craft your message to them. Then and only then select the marketing tool or platform on which they will best respond to you.

I hope this helps, and I hope you have a better understanding of how to start to use digital marketing for engineering businesses. It takes longer than copying the guy down the road, but boy can it deliver better results!

This is just the beginning of the road though; as you begin your marketing, give each platform a fair chance before swapping it for the next one. Try some AB testing (where you test one advert against another), set up conversion tracking so you can see which ads convert into sales/downloads/filled in contact forms. Then analyse the data, work out which tools and ads work the best, not just in sales, but in return on ad spend and the highest returns on profit margins. The chances of you picking the right marketing tool for engineering, and getting it to convert immediately are remote, but all to often engineers give up on a selected digital marketing tool when they weren’t actually using it right!

Feel free to get in touch with us at Brookstone Innovation if you have any questions about engineering marketing, or if you’d like some help with getting started.

In engineering marketing, one thing many marketers seem to underestimate is the power of combining two or more marketing tools into the same campaign, it seems to be a common misunderstanding that one campaign means one marketing tool.

Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook Ads and Instagram are popular choices for online marketing in engineering, and while they all have their strengths and weaknesses, sticking to one or two basic methods is not going to get you very far in the end.

Why not combine marketing tools, using their individual strengths, therefore strengthening your advertising? Boom. Lightbulb moment.

Google Ads – Google Ads is a ‘pay per click’ online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users

Facebook Pixel – Facebook Pixel is a tool that allows you to measure, optimise and build personalised audiences for very targeted advertising campaigns.

Facebook Ads – Facebook ads are the next step on from organic Facebook posts. Facebook ads are targeted to users based on their online history, location, demographic, profile information etc., and can be combined with the Facebook Pixel for extremely targeted advertising.

LinkedIn – Both organic posting and paid ads on LinkedIn can work very well for engineers, but it’s a pool that is heavily fished by engineers, so don’t fall into the same trap as many engineers and purely use this on it’s own, as the competition is huge. Use it as an engineering marketing tool, but don’t rely on it alone.

Here’s an example of when you may combine marketing tools… You have a product/service that isn’t getting enough traffic on your website. You’ve made a landing page that you think is pretty good, but it’s still not getting the number of visitors you want it to.

First thing to do: Check the product/service page on your website

Once the page is good to go and you’re happy with it (very happy with it), the next step is SEO. SEO is one of the best ways to get traffic to your page/website, by optimising the website for the search engines. The beautiful thing about SEO is that it doesn’t cost money each time someone clicks on it, and quite often they are the first results people go to when searching. But it can take time to build up SEO and get right. Not so good when you want an instant impact, but definitely needed rolling in the background.

So, what can you combine with SEO to speed up visits and sales?’

There are many tools including LinkedIn to bring awareness to the right people and you could use Twitter maybe? Another option here which is often overlooked is Google Ads, which can be combined quite nicely with SEO. Think about your target audience; the people who need what you’re offering. What search terms and keywords would they use on Google? These are the keywords you need to use in your Google Ads and your SEO. Now, this on its own is enough to produce sales conversions, but to really get the till ringing you need to think outside the box here, and that’s where the beauty of combining more marketing tools really comes into its own.

You can also bring in Facebook Pixel marketing to build an audience from the visitors you brought in via Google ads and SEO, from there you can then start to re-target them with Facebook Ads. Now you have yourself a completely targeted, specific marketing strategy that brings results!

You see, if you drive enough traffic to your landing page with Google Ads, SEO and other tools, you can then have a Facebook Pixel on your page. This will allow you to advertise on Facebook to only the people who have already visited your page/website through your Google ads.

You suddenly have a very targeted audience.

Bear in mind that engineers and buyers don’t always buy things the first time they see them, so no immediate sales or contact from your visitors doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want to buy anything from you. How often do you browse products and services online, with the intention of going back to it later, but forget about it or get distracted by something else? By using Facebook Pixel marketing and Google Remarketing, you can show up as a graphical ad on other websites or as a Facebook Ad on the newsfeeds of people who have already searched for and looked at what you’re selling. Just watch your sales conversion rate sky rocket.

So to summarise this example; check your website, set up your Google Ads and SEO, apply a Facebook Pixel to your page/website, remarket to people who have already taken some kind of action on your website, then watch your sales increase. Simple, right?

For more information or help with engineering marketing, get in touch with our clever team of people at Brookstone Innovation.

There are lots of eCommerce solutions on the market these days. Two of the current market leaders are Shopify, an all in one solution, and WooCommerce, which is based on the WordPress platform.  But although both of these software packages do the same job, in many ways they are worlds apart.

WooCommerce, working alongside WordPress, can in many ways be considered to be an effective eCommerce solution. But you’ll need to have quite a good understanding of the inner workings of websites to get these platforms put together and working how you’d like. There are lots of technical settings that you’ll need to be aware of and be able to tweak. And the setup of one website never seems to be the same for the next one, as each one tends to have its own idiosyncrasies.

But having said that, when WooCommerce and WordPress have been put together by a developer to create an eCommerce website, it’s a relatively straightforward task for the shop owner to edit the site themselves. That doesn’t mean that it‘s easy to edit. But with some basic knowledge, or some tuition, it’s certainly manageable.

Shopify, on the other hand, takes care of a lot of the technical elements for you. So although it’s far from easy to put a Shopify eCommerce site together, it’s still much easier than WooCommerce and WordPress. And for the shop owner, when it comes to editing and the general day to day running of the website, it’s a much easier process than WooCommerce.

WordPress with WooCommerce is an eCommerce platform with almost infinite customisation. In fact, you can create almost anything you want given the right technical know-how. On top of this, you own the website outright, so you can move it to any hosting providers that accept WordPress sites. You can adjust the styling, adapt the functionality and change almost all of the coding, if you so wish. In fact, you can make the website look pretty much any way you want it to, provided that you have the coding ability.

But even if you don’t have knowledge of coding, there are thousands of different plugins, and variations of plugins available. They allow you to make the website do almost anything that you could possibly want it to do. There’s some very good technical help available online too, although there are no easy options to get any official support for your WooCommerce site. You would have to build it yourself, or get a web developer to build it for you, in which case your developer could help with any problems you run into. But essentially, your WooCommerce website is very much your own site. It’s your site to look after and if there are any problems with it, it’s usually your responsibility to get them fixed.

Shopify works in a completely different way. With this platform, it’s more a case of renting a Shopify website, rather than owning it outright. The platform offers a limited number of themes, or templates which are available for purchase and development. But even after purchasing a theme, you won’t be able to dig too far into it to make changes, unless you’re an officially accredited Shopify coder. That’s because the platform keep a very tight rein on its themes and plugins. The benefit of this approach for website owners is that they aren’t involved in any maintenance whatsoever. They can access their website, add products, alter prices and get on with the business of selling. They won’t have to worry about any technical issues or spend time fixing problems.

Shopify host all their own websites, so you don’t even have to worry about that aspect of your site. But keep in mind that you won’t actually own your site, and you can’t decide to move it to another hosting service. So if you ever decide to move away from Shopify, you’ll have to export all of your products and take them elsewhere – you can’t take the website with you.

Without doubt, Shopify is one of the most effective ways of selling products online. It’s one of the few platforms that’s been built exclusively for eCommerce purposes, and it has some excellent themes and plugins. But if you’re looking for something different, you’ll find yourself stuck, unless you’re prepared to pay an accredited developer to build you something specific. And there might be times when your developer tells you they can’t action your request, as Shopify simply doesn’t have that capability.

But having said that, plenty of top eCommerce stores use Shopify, and the platform is robust enough to cover just about any type, or size, of online shop. Business owners pay a monthly subscription to Shopify, and although some basic plugins are free, most of the decent ones have recurring monthly charges. That’s how Shopify and its partners make their money. Depending on your requirements you might need five, six or even ten plugins, so be sure to factor in these costs when considering which eCommerce platform to choose.

On the flip side, WooCommerce and WordPress are open-source platforms. That means anyone can create tools and plugins for it, giving access to a massive range of options.

So which platform should you choose for eCommerce website? Your ultimate choice will depend on several factors.

But the important questions to ask are these:

If you’ve answered ‘Yes’ to all these questions, then WooCommerce and WordPress should be the route you take.

Answering  ‘Yes’ to these questions indicates that a Shopify website could be your best option.

The issue

Trying to sell online amongst a sea of cheaper competitors!

Continually reducing prices and fighting with suppliers for better discounts is a lazy way to do business and it’s simply a race to the bottom. This post will show you another way to beat your competitors to those all-important sales, but it will require some effort from you.

It can’t have escaped your notice just how competitive the internet has become these days. There seem to be more and more businesses competing against each other, so it’s not easy to define new ways of standing out from the crowd. Although If you’re selling a service then you might arguably have a slight advantage when it comes to highlighting your unique selling points and features.

The well known solutions

If you’re in the business of selling products and commodities, you can still put yourself ahead of your competitors. You might all be selling the same cutting tool brands for example, but you can still be ahead of the crowd with a bit of forward planning. One way of doing this is to spend a lot of money on your marketing, getting to the top of the search results and hoping that people will click on your website first. Another option is to look at being the cheapest supplier of that product. Or perhaps you could offer the cheapest delivery? How about the fastest delivery?

A better solution

The ideas listed above are valid and should not be ignored, but there’s another really good way for eCommerce companies and distributors to sell products that other distributors are also selling. And that’s to build a community.

By that I mean you need to start providing a lot of useful information about your products and how they fit in within your sector. So going back to our example of cutting tools, the chances are that prospective buyers will already be in the business of cutting metal. They may be in the aerospace sector cutting exotic materials, or perhaps they’re in the plastics sector machining injection mould tools.

Product reviews and testing

Producing informative posts on those subjects and product tests can help you to tap into the community of people who are most likely to be interested in those cutting tools. They may even be already using the product that you’re selling. So you don’t need to be the cheapest supplier, or spend lots of marketing money trying to reach the top of Google. Instead you work your way towards becoming an authority on that product and how those products work within the specific sectors. Video reviews shared through social media can be particularly effective for this, then you can generate a community of people around you that contribute to the information you’re providing. The members of that community will then begin talking with each other on social media about certain subjects, with you at the centre, holding that community together. When they require those products, they’ll tend to come to you instead of shopping around.

Study the product for them

Let’s go back to our cutting tools again. Your potential customer knows that you’ve been out there and thoroughly tested them for yourself. They can see that you’ve been answering questions about them, studied them in microscopic detail, explained the various features of them, gone through what you do and don’t like about them and their USP. So the people within your community, and visitors who come to your store, will feel reassured that you know what you’re talking about. And this is helped by the fact that there are so many people talking about you, your services, your business and the products that you sell. You’ll be seen as a safe and reputable business, and customers will want to purchase from you.

What could you do right now?

So ask yourself, what could you be doing to build an online community? What knowledge and insights can you provide about your products and services that will add extra value for your customers? How can you best encourage people to engage with you so that you can promote your brand to the best effect? Perhaps you could start the ball rolling with a Facebook group and take it from there?

If you’re stuck for ideas on getting started with building an online community, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We have a wealth of experience in getting brands noticed, and we’d be delighted to help your business reach new heights.